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I give thanks.

17 Feb

[I give thanks.] A post written in the rhythm of @UnvirtuousAbbey without the awesome humor and retweets. Read mine and then add your own. What do you give thanks for this day?

For a mandoline to quickly and uniformly slice sweet potatoes for the week, I give thanks. It’s like the guillotine. For yams.

For members who one day are seemingly against anything I say and the next day are the ones volunteering to pray and bringing bars of soap for our LWR care kits, I give thanks.

For completely sincere, supportive, and loving emails from a sincere, supportive, and loving friend, I give thanks. [That’s all you, broken mothership.]

For dark chocolate sea salt popcorn, I give thanks. For the P90x cardio dvd to offset the dark chocolate sea salt popcorn, I also give thanks.

For internet that finally works without powering down the router at church every six to eight hours, I give immense thanks.

For a double dose of The Bachelor this week, I will give thanks. [No judging. Sometimes the prospect of trashy tv gets me through my day.]

For Hannah who made me a tissue paper flower and helped me set up for worship, I give thanks. [Hannah -6ish years old- made tissue paper flowers with her grandma. Her grandma asked, “Who do you want to give this to?” certain the answer would be her mother. Unprompted, her response was Pastor Lindsay. I melt.]

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Your turn.

Friday Favorites.

15 Feb

[Friday Favorites.]

Gosh, I love everything about this.  Post-its, fun messages to leave around the house [though I don’t think Mabel can read], and endless possibilities all around.

This is my crazy cousin, Molly.  I love her and seriously think she may have a future as a professional lip syncer. 

I LOVE the idea of an indoor herb garden.  Oh, to have cilantro on hand.  Have you had any luck with indoor herbs?  I seem to kill them off.  Maybe [you and] I can find a few handy tips here.

Salted dark chocolate popcorn, you sound absolutely delightful.

You know how I get about Thai food.  Do you also know how I get about the Pioneer Woman?  [Love her.  Want to be her.]  Take those two hands and put them together [said like Joey from Friends].  I present to you Thai Chicken Wraps by Ree.

And, last but not least, this I need to believe and begin to live:

Joy.

12 Feb

[Joy.]  Ministry is hard.

I’m reminded of that this week more than ever.  It’s not any one thing in particular.  It’s prepping for Lent.  It’s congregational reports taking more time than I want them to take.  It’s realizing on Tuesday that I won’t get a weekend this week.  It’s having more people on my to-visit list than I can feasibly actually visit.  It’s two sermons a week for the next six weeks.  It’s organizing youth for a lock-in and acolyting and Lenten suppers.  This isn’t new stuff and it’s not unique-to-me stuff.  But it’s hard, and the difficulty is striking a new chord this week.

And so, in times like this, I look for joy.  I need a little joy this week.  Okay – I need a lot of joy this week.  Here is where I’m finding mine; where are you finding yours?

I made mini-heart cookies. For being a spinster, I actually love the crafts and baking that come with Valentine’s day.
I mailed these to mi madre y hermana.
The first block of a new quilt. It will be the most involved and challenging I’ve ever made. I’m ready for it.
I *finally* went to get fingerprinted so I can get a license to substitute on my day off. Subbing will bring me joy.

Featured photo: First grade Valentine’s art work adorn the halls in Blooming Prairie.  I love it.

friday favorites.

8 Feb

It’s been a crazy week.  I’m sorry I haven’t been more bloggy.  Turns out returning  to work after vacation will make you crazy — so crazy that your administrative assistant just knows to bring you Girl Scout cookies to help manage your stress.


Two things: You encourage me.  And — say, what’s your space jam?  [Watch this.  It will make sense and will make your whole day better, I promise.]

Need a DIY Valentine’s idea?  These are super cute and all they require is a printer, some cardstock, and fun candies.  [Okay.  And maybe some twine and bags and tape.]

Skillet Chicken Pot Pie with Butternut Squash sounds entirely delicious.  It may be a great comfort food as the anticipated winter storm approaches this weekend.

I signed up for a continuing education class in July.  It’s a journaling/art class at the art school on Madeline Island.  I am beyond excited to escape to the island for a week, squash my inner critic, and enjoy the water.  Upon further investigation, I also learned that the instructor for the class is a creativity coach.  I’m in love with her already.

Does your phone or ipad or laptop need a fun desktop background?  How About Orange has some cute options … and they’re free!

I love everything this woman quilts.  Seriously.  She is my inspiration.

DC.

22 Jan

[DC.] Did you watch the inauguration?  It was probably the first time I’ve sat and really watched and listened to the inauguration of a president.  It was wonderful.  I’d be lying if I said I didn’t cry a little bit during the POTUS’ speech.  And love FLOTUS’ haircut.

And it made me want to go to DC.

I’ve been twice.  First for senior class trip in high school.  My classmates and I boarded coach buses and drove thru the night to the city filled with history and culture.  We stayed through the week, filling our days with historical monuments, museums, and flying kites on the national mall.  [We had a free afternoon to explore the Smithsonian buildings but we were so tired of playing the tourist.  So we played the weirdos who flew kites on the mall.]  It was a wonderful trip.  My friends and I made memories we still talk about today.

The second time I was a junior? senior? in college.  Being at the liberal arts college I was, I joined the Student Global Aids Campaign.  We were all about AIDS awareness and advocating for available treatment and prevention.  In one weekend, we road tripped – again in a coach bus – to DC to march in an AIDS march.  It was an incredible whirlwind trip of which we spent 40 hours on a bus and only 10 hours actually in DC.  It was crazy and a great college experience.  March in DC for a cause dear to my heart?  Check.  [Above is the only photo I could find on my current computer.  Proof that I was there, along with my friends Kara and Deb.  Also proof my hair used to be really long and kinda gross.]

DC.  I’m ready to go back, explore it again, and immerse myself in the history again.  Add it to the travel list.

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I cry.

5 Jan
I figured out a tear trigger for me.
I always cry at animal movies, but really can’t say I’m the biggest animal person in the world.  I mean, I like animals but don’t really care an extraordinary amount about the gorilla at the zoo.  I’ve always wondered why I cry so when the people are saving the whale or helping the dog get home.
I cry at underdog movies.  Movies where the baseball team comes from behind after working together.  Or the movies when the bigger and better team/person/etc. moves to help the smaller and horrible team/person/etc.  Or the movies where the townsfolk support the awkward guy who buys a life-size sex doll and pretends it’s his girlfriend.  [Okay.  That’s just one movie and it’s called Lars and the Real Girl.]  
Then, tonight, I cried at this.  This ten year old boy in Philadelphia saves up his allowance money to give to the local animal shelter because he loves cats so much and he wants them to find homes.  Seriously, Lindsay?
I think I’m a sucker for people who help.  I’m a sucker for the people who bond together for a common cause – whether to save a whale or change someone’s life or give someone another chance.   I even cried during the latest Spiderman movie when all the construction workers moved their cranes to help Spidey travel through the city.  
I wish I was joking but nope.  There were actual tears.
They bonded together to help Spiderman and I turned into a puddle.  
Geez.  

favorite things.

5 Jan
1. Downton Abbey premiere.  Season three.  Tomorrow night.  I printed off paper dolls.  Don’t judge.
2. Rice noodles.  I’m not much of a pasta person, but for this Asian food staple, I go a bit crazy.
3.  Ruzzle.  It’s a new word game my sister introduced me to – one you play on your phone.  Find me and let’s play; I can almost nearly certainly guarantee that you’ll win.  [I’m not very good.]
4.  The Bachelor begins on Monday night.  Again, please don’t judge.
5.  Dreaming up service projects for Lent.  Health kits, anyone?
6.  Haircuts.
7.  Clean sheets and a freshly-made bed.
8.  Epiphany crackers.  [I ordered cracker snaps to make Christmas crackers but they did not come in time.  Instead, I will make them to celebrate the visit of the magi.  Quite appropriate, actually, as they traditionally come with crowns.]
In addition, favorite things are not: organizing my bedroom closet, preparing the newsletter for church, laundry, feeling absolutely overwhelmed at work, Saturday sermon writing, how boring mail becomes after Christmas, and red delicious apples.
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a story.

2 Jan

a thankful november: trips home.

25 Nov
I am thankful for trips home.  For as close as I live [four hours away is the closest I’ve lived in four years] I don’t get home very often.  It’s good when I do.
I took a sanity day last Wednesday and headed for southern Wisconsin.  For this trip home, I slumbered at my grandparent’s house in Edgerton along with my mom and my sister.  [My mom’s new house is slated to be done right around Christmas time.]  Cousin Molly practically lived there too [even though her real bed is just one house down the street].
This trip home consisted of thanksgiving deliciousness, movie nights and shopping with sister Emma and cousin Molly, Target runs with Mom, a girl’s night out with high school friends, and family visits.  Oh, and I helped Grandpa Sid cut his pills in half.  He asked when Emma and I stopped by for a visit.  And he handed me a pliers to do the job.  All in all, a pretty great and exhausting time. 
It’s also a year to be thankful for technology.  My annual Thanksgiving Day Bake-Off cousin, Connor, is currently studying abroad in Ghana.  No plate of mashed potatoes with his name on it.  No bake-off this year.  [Rescheduled for Christmas.]  But we got to skype with him!  How crazy is it that you can see and talk to someone across the world in real time?  Technology is great.  [Know who else loves technology?  Kip.  From Napoleon Dynamite.]
This trip home was good.  And one thing that makes coming back to Austin not quite as hard is checking the mail after I’ve been gone for a few days.  I love mail.  I subscribe to a lot of magazines just so I have something in my mailbox.  I’m just waiting for the Christmas card season to start!  I got a surprise this time around – two, actually.  One – a card from my friend Amanda with a gnome magnet inside!  Two – an anonymous letter with a magazine clipping inside about how women shouldn’t be pastors.  Yay!   I love mail … most of the time.  Welcome back, Pastor Lindsay.

I’m bored.

10 Nov
This is no thankful november post.  Don’t hate me –
But I’m bored.
I’ve felt this coming on for the past couple weeks.  Work has been … slow [knock on wood].  Slow as in I’ve been able to get my work done during the work day.  No long nights.  No weekend work.  
Hurray!  It’s what I’ve been striving for all along.  
Yesterday Mabel and I went for a walk and I went to Rochester to get an oil change and I watched a movie and I cleaned and I baked a couple cakes for future cakepops and I resisted spending $80 on Christmas cards.  Today I cleaned some more, read in the hammock, wrote snail mail, quilted, went for a walk, watched television, wrote a sermon, la di da.
One can only quilt, watch television, and walk so much.  I need some excitement in this life, otherwise this winter is going to be a long one.  New hobby?  More friends?  I don’t know.  Something.  [I realize it’s almost a luxury to feel bored.  I shouldn’t complain.  I know I shouldn’t.  But I think I just did in the tiniest bit.]
Me.
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